Omikron: The Nomad Soul (Dreamcast) review

"This is review is meant as a warning to any unfortunate souls who should find that they have accidentally bought this game. Further more to put off anyone who sees it in the bargain bin and thinks its worth a look.
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This is review is meant as a warning to any unfortunate souls who should find that they have accidentally bought this game. Further more to put off anyone who sees it in the bargain bin and thinks its worth a look.

DON'T DO IT!!

This game is plagued with one of the worst in-game cameras I have ever seen in a third person adventure game. It swings around wildly, lurching and swooping and crucially jerking in a staccato fashion with each door you walk through, each corner you turn and each room you try and explore.

After several hours play I was suffering such terrible motion sickness from trying and failing to control the character in a way that reduced the visual roller coaster my eyes were being taken on with each step, that I nearly threw-up.

I did stick with the game in small doses to see if it was worth sticking out the technical flaws for the sake of the game. Unfortunately most aspects of the game and gameplay were just as poor and the in-game camera.

Omikron is a laudable concept, taking both the freedom to wander around a huge futuristic city, talking and investigating (like Shenmue) as well as the ability to be reincarnated in the first person to touch your body after you die (like Messiah) it looked a promising game. You the player are recruited via your TV into the world of Omikron. YOur spirit taking over the body of Kayl a policeman under investigation for the death of his partner.

As you progress you uncover a web of corruption and plots involving dark demons. Unfortunately the characters you inhabit and those you talk to are just so damn dull. There is no sense of interest generated as you wander around attempting to trigger the next cut scene. Its like playing a 3d point and click adventure.

Problems also occur when the gameplay changes. The ''action sequences'' are either dreadful first person shooter sections, or lame beat 'em up diversions against boss types. Both fail utterably to work in way and create an over all sense of ''why bother?''

The graphics are nice, conveying a gloomy futuristic setting very well. The people are less well done. Bizarre face mapping lends most a grotesque appearance and they also walk like wooden puppets. The sheer scale of the city works against it as well, it is often easy to get lost amongst the samey, grey high-rises.

Finally the music..which is OK is David Bowie is your thing.

Its a pity really, Omikron is probably too ambitious for its own good. Sadly it is let down by a poor game camera, a frame rate that glitches and chugs to ridiculously low rates when you are moving from one area to another and frustrating and boring gameplay (find the object, give it to someone, trigger a cut scene). Couple that up to unlikable characters, confusing and unclear objectives and dire fighting and shooting sequences and you have a game that is best left languishing in the returned games bucket where it so clearly belongs.

What's that awful noise? A horrendous, mangled shrieking. A wailing and groaning punctuated by explosions of mocking laughter. Is some horrible torture taking place? No, unfortunately that's the sound of me playing the Pop Idol game very, very badly and being soundly ridiculed by a roomful of teenagers. Damn.

Every now and then a game comes along that is so original that it defies easy categorisation. Herdy Gerdy, developed by Tomb Raider creators Core Design, is one such game. You have to make controlled jumps like a platform game; likewise you need to collect items to progress to the next areas, again like a platform game...

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